"Abri Pataud is a prehistoric site located in the Dordogne, at the base of the cliff just north of the village of Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, itself built at the foot of the same geomorphological formation.
The site was classified as a historic monument by a decree of June 25, 1930, then the shelters located under the cliff by an order of May 9, 1958.
The site of the Pataud shelter belonged to the Selves family before becoming the property of the National Museum of Natural History in 1957 at the instigation of Hallam L. Movius, who had directed excavations on the site since 1953, and there led another six campaigns between 1958 and 1964, followed by a team of researchers from the National Museum of Natural History.
The results of the Movius excavations were compiled by Harvey M. Bricker, from the original American theses, without a critical rereading of the stratigraphy, which was undoubtedly finer than that published. In particular, we could have apprehended the subdivisions of the large lithic phases into elementary stratigraphic subsets, allowing the study of the internal evolution of the lithic facies and their relations with the industries very close to Laugerie-Haute Est. The more recent ones obtained by the Natural History Museum are still unpublished.
The stratigraphic sequence includes levels of the Upper Palaeolithic with in particular, from bottom to top, the Early Aurignacian, the Advanced Aurignacian, the Gravettian including a final facies, called Protomagdalenian, and the Solutrean.
Biface found on the site. Carved by Neanderthals more than 100,000 years ago, it was reused during the Magdalenian period.
Since 1990, the site has been fitted out to welcome visitors. Under the direction of Henry de Lumley, assisted by Brigitte Delluc, a site museum has been set up in the nearby Movius shelter and presents part of the results of the excavations."